black paint M

puketronic · Sep 6, 2014

I want my M3 black.

It seems that many painters are oversees and take forever (years). I'd prefer someone in the US, or atleast North America, if possible.

cliveh · Sep 6, 2014

Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy an original black version?

puketronic · Sep 6, 2014

cliveh said:
Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy an original black version?

I'm not sure. I thought all OEM black paint cameras were $$$. I prefer the look and feel of my M3 (and M2 for that matter) over the M4-M6. (I have never handled an MP and have no desire for an M7).

snapguy · Sep 6, 2014

Should I paint my 1930 Dusenberg Dual Cowl Phaeton candy-ass purple or keep the original paint?

RalphLambrecht · Sep 6, 2014

puketronic said:
I want my M3 black.

It seems that many painters are oversees and take forever (years). I'd prefer someone in the US, or atleast North America, if possible.

I 'd assume that the durability of OEM blck vs painted black is quite different.If youactually use your camera, the paint willwear off in no timeflat.get an original black Leica or you may regret the expensive paint job. real photographers use black cameras anyway.

250swb · Sep 6, 2014

Of course the big problem in buying an expensive black paint M3 is that you dare not use it because it is so valuable. And although a black paint custom job may cost as much, the intrinsic value is less if anything happens to it, so it's not like an appreciating asset or anything is it.

But a paint job is a more complicated thing than many people expect. The chrome has to come off the appropriate parts, the painter has to understand how to paint (which many don't, especially 'have a go amateurs'), and they need to be able to put it all back together with some mechanical sympathy. That is why it is expensive, and unless the donor M3 has already 'paid for itself' it really can be nearly as expensive as buying an authentic camera.

Steve

puketronic · Sep 6, 2014

thanks for all the advice.

Although I would love a black M3, you can't always get what you want. I want a black M, not a collector piece.

I'll opt for an M4-2, M4-P, or something.

cliveh · Sep 6, 2014

puketronic said:
thanks for all the advice.

Although I would love a black M3, you can't always get what you want. I want a black M, not a collector piece.

I'll opt for an M4-2, M4-P, or something.

Unfortunately any black M is a collector's item. See past and future westlicht auctions.

http://www.westlicht-auction.com/index.php?id=62

darkosaric · Sep 6, 2014

Closest thing to black M3 would be black MP with 0.85 finder. But not a cheap option ...

Newt_on_Swings · Sep 6, 2014

You can have the m3 stripped and painted black. I think there's a thread on it on rff. I'm not sure how much it costs. Probably a fair penny.

Richard S. (rich815) · Sep 6, 2014

Get a used black paint MP

NJH · Sep 7, 2014

That is the only sensible option surely although it will be a tough ask finding one with the 0.85x viewfinder. High mag viewfinder M6 classics seem to be much more common or rather more easily available on the secondhand market but the OP has already stated he doesn't want an M6. Can't think why personally but then I have never understood why so many of my fellow Leica users get so hung up about camera aesthetics, the type of rewind or the advance lever etc. The cheapest option to get those would be the aforementioned M6 modded with MP advance and rewind controls, I reckon could well still come in cheaper than a 0.85x MP, here in the UK its rare to see an MP for less than £2K but I have seen a few 0.85x M6 for £1K or less.

RalphLambrecht · Sep 7, 2014

NJH said:
That is the only sensible option surely although it will be a tough ask finding one with the 0.85x viewfinder. High mag viewfinder M6 classics seem to be much more common or rather more easily available on the secondhand market but the OP has already stated he doesn't want an M6. Can't think why personally but then I have never understood why so many of my fellow Leica users get so hung up about camera aesthetics, the type of rewind or the advance lever etc. The cheapest option to get those would be the aforementioned M6 modded with MP advance and rewind controls, I reckon could well still come in cheaper than a 0.85x MP, here in the UK its rare to see an MP for less than £2K but I have seen a few 0.85x M6 for £1K or less.

I didn't realize that Leica users worried abou price.

mnemosyne · Sep 7, 2014

puketronic said:
thanks for all the advice.

Although I would love a black M3, you can't always get what you want. I want a black M, not a collector piece.

I'll opt for an M4-2, M4-P, or something.

Good idea. I have an M3, M2 and M4-2, all serviced and I prefer the M4-2 over the other two as a shooter, and it was the cheapest one of the bunch. I have only very rarely seen paint job M3s or M2s which looked just naturally beautiful, by which I mean that didn't look somehow either screwed up or somehow, in an irritating way, über-perfect compared to an original black paint M. But of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder and such ...

John Koehrer · Sep 7, 2014

It's less expensive to have your camera repainted than buying an original but You're never going to realize the investment if you ever sell it.
There's a repaint M4 on CL Chicago that's about twice as much as a chrome one. At that price, might as well buy an original.
Regarding paint wear, yup it will but aesthetics IMO make the wear through to brass is much nicer to the sickly gray from an anodized finish on pewter or whatever.

NJH · Sep 7, 2014

Ralph it sometimes feels like that, I had a guy berate me elsewhere when I pointed out that I had one lens faster than f2.0 which happened to be a 50 and as such was my fast lens for low light work. It never occurred to that guy that not everyone is rich enough to have a collection of summilux lenses sat on the shelf waiting for the light to go down.

black paint M

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